


Factory Inspection

by not nullbubby (NullBubby)



Series: adventures of dan the hot dog man [4]
Category: Kirby (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23160817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NullBubby/pseuds/not%20nullbubby
Summary: Dan gets shrunk in looking for the way forwards.
Series: adventures of dan the hot dog man [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652671
Kudos: 1





	Factory Inspection

**Author's Note:**

> i literally had no idea how to continue this story so here ya go

Test tubes, filled with strange and colorful liquids, were placed on the corners of several tables. A rack in the back of the room held a couple more, but was for the most part empty. The floor was surprisingly clean—given all conditions—and several broken monitors lay at one of the walls. Large vats of bubbling liquids covered another end of the room. Cobwebs and dust signaled that the lab had long since been abandoned.

A door at the end of the room opened up, and two young boys walked inside. One was looking around cautiously while the other was more focused on the screen he was holding.

“You know if it’s in this one?” Magolor asked.

Dan didn’t even look up. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. It says that it’s somewhere around here, but the marker looks like it could be in any one of these rooms, so best to check ‘em all.”

Dan put the tablet in his backpack and the two started searching around on the tables, pushing beakers around and looking over used equipment. Already after finishing their first table each, they started getting bored. Magolor gave off a sigh as he walked to the next one.

By the time they were down to the last desk, it looked as if both of them could die of boredom at any moment.

“I can take the last one,” Dan offered.

“Yes, please.” He walked over to one of the walls and sat down.

The last table looked just like any other, glasses and old liquids scattered about. Dan gave a mental sigh and started looking around.

As he circled around the last edge, his leg bumped into something sticking out. He immediately stuck his hand over the bruise and looked down at what caused it. On one of the edges of the solid table’s side, a short handle stood out connected to a drawer of some sort. He set his hand over it and pulled it out to see what was inside.

Large piles of papers covered the entirety of the cabinet’s floor, but a faint light inside immediately stuck out. He did his best to set aside the stacks and find out what else was inside. At the very bottom, beneath every single sheet of paper, lay a green power cell, seemingly in working order despite the conditions of everything else. He quickly pulled it out.

“Aha!” he exclaimed, backing up. “Here it is!”

Magolor was barely paying attention, if any.

Dan took out the PCD from his backpack and set it down on the table. After zipping up the pocket, he took a step back to strap it on, but only to bump directly into one of the larger vats with a lime green liquid. He quickly turned around as he felt the impact, noticing only a small crack on the glass. With a sigh of relief, he walked over to the table to get to work with the battery.

Once finished, he stepped back again and stood looking at the device for a moment.

“Alright. You ready to—”

A large crash from behind interrupted him. Before being able to look at what happened, the green substance spilled all over him and covered his vision. Thankfully, it all dispersed quickly and was only left rubbing his eyes.

“What did you just do?” Magolor asked

Dan coughed up some of the fluid a few times. “I accidentally hit one of these vats lying around here. I’m fine at least, but I was going to say that I finished the preparations and we’re ready to leave.”

There was no response. He tried opening his eyes, only to shut them immediately from irritation. A short while later, he managed to open his eyes fully and started back towards the table, his vision still fairly blurry. At least he was dry, despite what happened.

After what was way too many steps forwards, he rubbed his eyes a few more times to see where he was. At last, his eyesight returned and he looked around to see that he certainly was not fine. In front of him stood the table, but at a gargantuan size. It was so big that there was going to be no way that he could even reach the PCD, but that was the least of his worries.

“Dan? W-where did you go?” his friend asked.

He immediately knew there would be no use in trying to respond directly, and also that it would take some effort to get back to him. Luckily for him, Magolor approached the site of the spill and begun looking around. Dan ran over to where he stood and attempted to snag onto his robes, but they didn’t hang low enough for him to grab. After a few tries, his friend moved to a different spot nearby.

His first and only idea was to climb the table so it would be easier to be spotted. As he approached, however, he realized there was no easy way of getting up unless he became a mountain climber in a matter of seconds. He heard his name called a few times as he looked around for something else he could use. A small indent in the table looked like the only option, so he walked over to it to see what was there.

Inside was what seemed to be a stairwell leading upwards, though he couldn’t tell from the dimly lit conditions. This seemed way too convenient to be real, but he disregarded the fact and started upwards in the pitch blackness.

One long ascent later, he felt as if he was about to collapse. Eventually he did, and he looked up to see a light at the end of the tunnel not too far away. Regaining his strength, he continued onwards against the burning pain in his legs.

At the top, he fell over again and got some rest. By now, Magolor was panicking greatly and was frantically looking around the spill site and shaking his head. Dan stared for a while, looking around for something he could do to snag his friend’s attention. After finding nothing, he got back up and trudged onwards towards the edge of the table nearest the site.

Several glass shards lay at the end of the desk. They could be used to get himself noticed, Dan concluded, but even at such a small size they would be dangerous. He quickly decided against it and looked around in the debris for any other objects lying around.

Before he could do anything, Magolor walked up to the table he was at and set his hands down. Dan quickly noticed the prime opportunity and dashed over.

Upon reaching, he realized just how small he really was. His friend’s hand was so big in comparison to himself that he could be held in a fist and still have a bit of room left over inside. Quickly dismissing the thought, he hopped onto the glove and began calling out as loud as he could.

Magolor’s eyes quickly darted down to where he stood and gave a shocked look. Dan was tossed across the desk and sent sliding almost over the edge, but luckily his backpack was heavy enough to prevent it. A short gasp was heard, then shortly after a hand covered and took him into the air.

“Dan! Is that you? I—I’m so sorry, can you please forgive me?”

“Uh, yeah sure. You didn’t know it was me, so it’s fine.”

There were a few moments of silence between them, then Dan was lifted up to the other’s ear.

Dan, realizing what was being asked of him, repeated himself.

“B-but, I hurt you! And at that size it could’ve been much worse!”

“Well, just uh, don’t worry about it, okay? What matters is that I’m safe, right?”

“Yeah, I guess...” More silence. “How did you get to be so small?”

“I’m assuming it was that liquid that spilled over me, seeing as there wasn’t exactly anything else around to do something so special.” Dan looked up for a little. “Hey, can you put me on your head?”

“Yeah, sure,” he responded, setting him down. “Why?”

“So I can talk to you easily,” he said, crawling up to one of Magolor’s ears, “and you don’t have to hold me around all the time.”

“Sounds great, but can you stay on there while I’m walking?”

“I dunno. Wanna try it out?”

“But what if you fall off? I wouldn’t be able to tell.”

“I can tell you if I start losing my balance. Besides, I can always hold onto your robes to stay on.”

“O-okay, if you say so.”

Dan clutched on tightly and gave the OK. Magolor started walking around slowly and immediately stopped.

“Wait!” Dan exclaimed. “Keep going, I’m fine! And maybe pick up the pace a little.”

This time, he started walking at his normal speed, not hearing anything. After a short while, he stopped.

“Was that fine?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s good,” Dan replied. “I can stay on fairly easily.”

“Okay, that’s great.” He looked around a little. “What now?”

“Well, before this little incident, I was going to activate the portal to let us out of here.”

“Oh.” Magolor walked up and picked up the PCD. “Wait, I don’t know how to use this.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it. It’s pretty simple, actually.”

A short tutorial later, they were both ready.

“Go ahead,” Dan said.

“It’s this button, right?” he asked somewhat uneasily.

“Yeah. Just press it and it’ll come out. Oh, and stand back a little.”

A short click was heard, then the portal appeared in the air. Magolor stumbled back a little from the recoil.

“I—I did it!” he exclaimed.

“Nice job,” Dan said. “You ready?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” He stepped back. “I guess you’re the one holding on this time.”

With quite a bit of hesitation, he ran up to the portal, then stopped just before. A moment later, he hopped into it—Dan almost losing his hat in the process—for the next leg of the journey.


End file.
